Preston Brown

B.S. Computer Science

Sole author · Rust, LLVM 18, lld

• Designed and built a statically typed programming language and its full toolchain across four Rust crates, roughly 89,000 lines.
• Wrote the front end and static analyzer: lexer, parser, typed ASTs, type checking, reachability analysis, diagnostics, formatter, package resolution, and a simulator.
• Wrote the LLVM 18 backend, lowering typed ASTs to IR and object files, and drove lld through a C++ shim to link executables for macOS, iOS, Linux, Android, and Windows.
• Structured codegen as ten builder traits in strict dependency layers, so a new high-level operation inherits the layers below it instead of accumulating on one context type.
• Built the `peko` CLI driver, a language server, and editor grammars around the compiler.

Sole author, no AI involvement · C, C++, CMake

• Designed PRX, a bytecode binary format that encodes instruction width into the opcode with a two-argument flag, so the decoder needs no width table.
• Wrote a bytecode VM in C17 with stack frames, a register-copy calling convention, label-based branching, and a first-fit heap allocator with compaction and reference fixup.
• Wrote a PrASM assembler in C++20 and a host CLI driving both, with two CTest suites and a CMake build that disables host-only targets when cross-compiling.

Architecture and system design · Rust, LLVM 18

• Designed the architecture for an embeddable JavaScript engine and wrote the roughly 1,300-line specification it was built against. The implementation was written by Claude to that specification.
• Set the governing constraint that no representation is built as a placeholder, so value encoding, object layout, collector, frame layout, and ABI are settled in final form up front and coverage grows only by adding cases.
• Specified a single semantic source of truth so the interpreter and compiled code call the same runtime helpers and cannot diverge on program meaning.
• Ruled on pointer and string representation, threading and isolates, exception convention, bytecode encoding, atom lifetime, and heap sizing, and maintained an amendments log as implementation exposed gaps in the plan.
• Required that no machine code be generated at run time and that LLVM stay off anything shipped, enforced in CI by a dependency-graph check.

Application development and deployment platform

• Founded and led the project for five and a half years, building a platform that converts web applications into native bundles for Apple, Android, Windows, and Linux while hiding all platform-specific work.
• Designed a two-pipeline architecture separating rare toolchain-heavy runtime compilation from a per-deploy assembly pipeline containing no compiler, reducing developer-facing builds to seconds.
• Built a native runtime in C/C++ with Objective-C, Java, Win32/COM, and GTK backends, plus a Rust workspace holding the CLI, build server, bundlers, and codegen.
• Generated both sides of the JavaScript-to-native bridge from one interface definition, and shipped a typed JavaScript SDK as an npm package.
• Built remote Apple build infrastructure, screenshot capture, signing, and deployment.
• Discontinued active development after concluding the market opportunity did not justify continued investment.

Top youth leadership position in the lodge

Veterans Memorial Wall, Escondido Moose Lodge 1874

• Planned and led construction of a permanent veterans memorial wall as my Eagle Scout Service Project, beginning planning in February 2022.
• Developed the project plan and coordinated volunteers, materials, logistics, and construction through completion.
• Recognized by the City of Escondido, the City of San Marcos, Congressman Darrell Issa, and other community organizations.

Four years wrestling, two years varsity

• Team captain for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons.

Defensive end (football), distance (track)